Recipe: Salted caramel cheesecake

To be honest I’m not a big fan of salted caramel or cheesecake but my mum is of both so selflessly I picked out this to make for desert last Sunday. But turns out it was absolutely an unselfish thing to do because it was heartstoppingly delicious. Like seriously, it has to be tasted to be believed.

And not only that but it looked good! Usually things I make either look good and taste horrendous, or look like something you’d find in a patisserie window in France but taste like something you’d find down a drain. But look at the beautifulness of that picture at the top. That perfect drizzle of caramel – nothing I’ve made has ever looked so Instagram-worthy before.

Anyway, enough self-congratulating. What about the recipe? Baked cheesecakes always strike me as being quite tricky to get right but this one was surprisingly easy. Especially as I used bought caramel rather than made it. I used Nestle Carnation caramel which is next to the condensed milk in the supermarket (this isn’t self-explanatory so I thought I ought to tell you) and it was really good without being overly sweet. So I’d definitely recommend buying it rather than attempting to make it yourself. Although you might be amazing at caramel – personally I usually end up having to throw the saucepan away.

It’s important to use full fat cream cheese. The light stuff is too runny and your filling won’t set. But really, it would be ridiculous to try and make this healthier. When something has caramel in the title it’s time to give up counting calories and just enjoy.

Ingredients

For the base:

100g almonds

100g butter

75g muscavado sugar

150g flour

For the filling:

260g cream cheese

40g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 379g tin caramel

For the topping

1/2 379g tin caramel

2 tsp sea salt flakes

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C.

Grease a 20cm loose bottomed tin.

In an electric mixer chop the almonds until somewhere between chopped and ground and remove to a bowl.

Put the butter and sugar in the mixer and cream together.

Add the flour and mix until it forms a dough.

Mix in the nuts.

Tip into the tin and use your hands to press into the corners and up the sides.

Use a fork to poke holes in the base.

Bake in the oven for 16 minutes.

Remove from the oven and put a baking dish full of water in the bottom instead (and you’ll be leaving it in there while you bake the cheesecake).

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and half tin of caramel together until combined but don’t overmix it or it will go too runny.

Whisk the egg and egg yolk together and add to the cream cheese. Mix until incorporated.

Pour into the case and bake in the centre of the oven for an hour.

Check that it’s done by shaking the tin, if it wobbles in the middle rather than sloshes then it’s ready.

Turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake in to cool with the door cracked open.

Once it’s cool, pour over the other half of caramel sauce and sprinkle with the salt flakes. Then serve and enjoy.